Black Literature and Digital Humanities: The Black Book Interactive Project

The Project on the History of Black Writing (PHBW) is the oldest, continuously running digital humanities project working exclusively on African American literature.  Founded in 1983 at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, it parallels the evolution of the field itself.  Today, thirty years later, HBW continues to engage in scholarship focusing on the study of African American literature and digital software.

Below, follow links that provide information to our newest digital initiative, “The Black Book Interactive Project”  

*The Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP) Overview

*The Black Book Project: What kinds of important research questions are we asking?

*The Black Book Project: Why is it important?

The Black Book Project: Why is it important?

Since the study/teaching of black literature is very often dictated by what is current or what authors will attract students to a course, most of what we know about black fiction is based on a very small sample of texts.  Our objective is to learn what this larger body of mostly non-canonical texts can tell us that we don’t know and how this knowledge alters current conceptions about black literature. Text analysis has been slow to come to black writing, but is growing. What we hope to achieve through this project is to provide the context for not only thinking about but also documenting continuity and change, tradition and innovation within African American fiction, by indexing novels according to selected features, such as word choice, geographic location, character names, narrative mode, for example. 

Black Literature and DigitalHumanities: The Black Book Interactive Project

The Black Book Project: What kinds of important research questions are we asking?

Based on our collection of some 2000 novels, most of which are neither widely read nor taught, we see the digital medium as a way to provide new levels of access, consolidate a large amount of data and invite new questions. What patterns exist among book titles, word count and chapter structure of the novels? What are the terms and examples do authors use to describe race and racial tension, and how does this shift over time? Which African American authors are inclined to use unique words and phrases? How many and which prominent historical figures make appearances in the novels? How much do the novelists represent variations of standard and African American vernacular English in their works? What physical environments and distinct regions are described in the novels, and what common words and phrases are used to describe those places? How do stylistic preferences differ from writer to writer? How do these questions alter current organizing premises/theories about black novels?

Black Literature and DigitalHumanities: The Black Book Interactive Project

The Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP) Overview

[By Kenton Rambsy]

The Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP) focuses on African American novels published from the mid-19th through the early 20th century novels, creating a tool that allows a comparison of thematic and stylistic elements, ideas and language use. Relying on text-mining software, mapping and geo-tagging, we can make striking observations about a large number of texts. Scholars, researchers and students will be able to ask more specific questions about individual texts in relationship to the larger group and to map literary trends more precisely. The ultimate goal for this interactive database is to allow us to customize our research questions and topics related to black novels by demonstrating the consistency and transformation of ideas and patterns across time, especially as black writing becomes more professionalized and gains increased credibility within our culture. 

*Black Literature and DigitalHumanities: The Black Book Interactive Project